Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world; it arrests the vanishing apparitions
which haunt the interlunations of life, and veiling them,
or in language or in form, sends them forth among
mankind, bearing sweet news of kindred joy to those with
whom their sisters abide-abide, because there is no
portal of expression from the caverns of the spirit which
they inhabit into the universe of things. Poetry redeems
from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.
-"A Defence of Poetry,"
Percy Bysshe Shelley
What is the central idea in this part of the essay?
O Poetry is the best way to spread news to people
who would not otherwise hear it.
O Poetry is useful for communicating religious ideas.
Poetry makes time appear to move more slowly
than it does.
© Poetry can preserve life's brief moments of beauty.